Explaining The Leg Thing
by FanWriter02
Summary: "I cannot help but wonder…" Valka started, letting her eyes fall onto his leg. "Oh. Yeah. My leg." One-shot where Hiccup explains to Valka what happened to his leg. Rated K . Mother/Son bonding.


**Okay, so I imagine this takes place between the part where Hiccup shows Valka he can fly (er- glide) and Stoick "captures" Hiccup. So that's where this takes place, back in Valka's cave.**

 **Let me know what you think! And as always… ENJOY! XD**

Hiccup picked up a raw fish from the basket and tossed it to Toothless, who lay behind him cushioning Hiccup in his sitting position, where he was roasting a fish over the fire. Toothless caught it with his teeth and quickly gulped it down in one swallow. He grinned at Hiccup in that silly way of his, asking for more.

Hiccup laughed and pushed the dragon's head away playfully. Toothless cooed and nudged the basket for more food. Hiccup pushed it over to him, letting the dragon eat the rest.

Valka watched the scene silently, slowly stroking CloudJumpers head that lay beside her. She let her eyes look over her son, whom she hadn't seen in over twenty years. He definitely favored her in his build. He was tall and lean, although he got his auburn hair from Stoick. He also shared her love for dragons, something she had not expected from the "son of Stoick the Vast". But she was overjoyed to hear he was not a dragon killer. There had been many times in the past when she thought about what her son was doing, or had been doing. Killing dragons always came first to her mind, but now she discovered she'd been wrong.

How long ago had it been since the Berkians had made peace with the dragons? She didn't even know. She didn't even know how it had happened. Little did she know that Hiccup played a big part in that outcome.

Her eyes looked him over again, until she caught sight of his leg. The one that wasn't there. She knew Toothless had had something to do with it... but she still needed to get the whole story.

"Hiccup." She said quietly. Her son, still laughing, turned his head towards her, his eyes asking a silent question of _what?_.

"I cannot help but wonder…" she started, letting her eyes fall onto his leg. Hiccup followed her gaze and realized what she was looking at.

"Oh. Yeah. My leg." Hiccup said simply, without much emotion. In fact, he sounded almost cheerful about it. Valka could tell that he was covering up for true feelings, but she overlooked that as she nodded.

"Uh… it's kind of a long story…"

Valka settled back against CloudJumper as she waited, silently urging him on.

Hiccup also leaned back, pulling his knee up to his chest while his all there leg bent underneath him. He sighed heavily as he started.

"Well, to start off, people didn't really like me for the first fifteen years of my life-"

"What?" Valka asked in disbelief. Hiccup was the chiefs son, the heir of Berk! Why wouldn't they like him? What they found wrong with him? He looked perfectly fine to her…

"Well, I was really small, as in short, skinny, not very Viking material, you know. I couldn't kill dragons, I could barely even lift an axe. For the most part I worked at the forge with Gobber." Hiccup paused, glancing over at his mother before refixing his gaze on the fish over the fire. "But, I really wanted to prove, mostly to Dad, that I could be a Viking, even if I was small. One night, during a dragon raid, Gobber left me alone in the forge, so I took my chance to go out and shoot down a dragon with this… catapult thingy I made. I really liked to invent things too. Anyways, I went out and shot down Toothless, but nobody saw me do it… and no one really believed me either. Guess I wouldn't've either if I'd been in their shoes."

Valka stopped Hiccup, "So you mean, no one liked you, you were like the outcast of the island, and yet you were the heir of Berk? Why- people didn't treat you cruelly did they?" Valka's voice was one of disbelief. To her, Hiccup looked strong, was smart, (he invented wings of his own for goodness sake!) kind, loving… everything she ever thought someone should be. So, what if he couldn't fight dragons? He had excellent brains!

Hiccup shrugged. "Cruel's a strong word." He said quietly before continuing. "Well, Dad and a bunch of the other Vikings went off in search of the Dragon's nest, so Gobber stayed behind to retrain recruits… for dragon killing you know. Well, I don't know how it happened but somehow Dad got talked into putting me into that… class.. whatever. But I got ahead of myself. After Dad kicked me back into the house, I took off in search of Toothless, and when I found him, I was going to kill him. I was. I had my knife ready… and I said some pretty nasty things to him." Hiccup leaned over giving Toothless a hug with a soft apology before continuing. "Well, I just couldn't kill him. I looked at him, and I just… well, in all honesty. I saw myself."

Valka nodded with a soft smile, "Runs in the family."

They looked at each other, and Valka realized Hiccup had said that very same thing earlier. She laughed quietly before falling silent, urging him to continue.

"So, I let him go, and Toothless took off, although I didn't notice he struggled to fly. I was too dazed after he roared at me in my face. Toothless can sure be terrifying when he wants to be." Toothless cooed in dragon laughter, his eyes big. He looked nothing like the terrifying monster he could be. He reminded Valka of a big black pet cat.

Hiccup continued, "So when I got back to the house and Dad told me I had to fight dragons, I… well after all those years of wanting to, I just didn't want to anymore after seeing Toothless. But there's no talking Dad out of something when he's made up his mind." Hiccup paused, then looked at the fish on the stick. He pried it off and tossed it to Toothless, for reasons if it was because he was talking, or if he was just not hungry… Valka wasn't sure.

"The next day at the Dragon Academy… well let's just say it didn't go well. For me anyways. If it weren't' for Gobber I'd be dead. He told me something that confused me though. He said that dragon's always go for the kill. I wanted to know why Toothless didn't, so I went back out to look for him."

"I found him in this closed in cove, and I discovered he couldn't fly with that missing tailfin. So I went back to the village, had another bad day at the kill ring, then went back out to Toothless. I brought a fish, because he was having a hard time getting food, weren't you, bud?" Toothless purred in response, then regurgitated the fish he'd just choed down into Hiccup's lap.

"Ugh... Toothless. We've been over this." Valka burst out laughing at Hiccup's look of disgust.

"Thanks, buddy, but you can have it." Toothless shrugged and sucked the fish back up and swallowed.

"Okay, so yeah. I went out there, and after throwing my weapon away, and feeding him the fish, things went up hill from there. Gradually, we began to trust each other. And me playing around with Toothless in that cove taught me stuff too, about the dragons. So, I began to do better at the Academy. Man, was Astrid mad at me." Hiccup laughed softly before continuing. "I made a tailfin and saddle for Toothless to try and get him to fly again. I felt really bad about hurting his tailfin like that… so I felt like I owed it to him. He didn't seem to mind though… did you bud?" Toothless cooed again, nodding at Valka as though to affirm what he said. "We got better and better at flying, although one time we almost got caught by Astrid. Haha, I got stuck onto Toothless's saddle and had to go to the village to get myself off. Astrid caught sight of me, and… well let's just say it was _close_." Hiccup paused, "Astrid was really suspicious from the start of it all, I suppose. And she didn't like it when I started doing better then her. She was one of the best Viking teenagers in the village… so it was quite blow to her pride… I suppose. But back then, I just thought about actually staying alive, and keeping the dragons in the kill ring alive."

Valka nodded, proud that her son hadn't wanted to kill them, and had protected the dragons. He was indeed very special. She still couldn't understand why no one could see how… great Hiccup was. But he said he'd been small and skinny… so perhaps he'd changed since then. She supposed he had… although she still wondered how long ago this had been… had he said he'd been fifteen?

"How old were you during this?" she asked before he continue with his story.

"Fifteen." _Fifteen_. He'd been _fifteen_ when he'd lost his leg. He'd been so young… even though if he'd lost his leg only a couple months ago, she would still consider him too young to lose a limb. Gobber had been nearly thirty when he lost his leg and arm, and he even struggled a bit with it. Valka couldn't imagine what it must've been like for Hiccup… at only FIFTEEN! Valka's heart tugged as she realized what he'd lost, and she hadn't been there for him.

But Hiccup was continuing. "Well, I did so well at the academy that I "won", so to speak. I was going to have to kill a dragon in the next round. Well, I wasn't going to do that, so I went home, packed up, and headed out to Toothless, ready to leave forever if need be. But, Astrid was pretty steamed at me for beating her, so she followed me. She found me right as I got to the cove, but she didn't notice Toothless till he came running at her. Well, I stopped him, and told Astrid what had happened, but she ran off to tell the village what I'd done. Toothless caught her though and I took her out flying to show her that dragons aren't that bad." Toothless growled to say, _"Hey, we're more than okay. We're terrific!"_

"Astrid saw how great Toothless was, and she changed right then and there. She never killed another dragon after that." Hiccup paused, "But we got caught up in this dragon hunting… pack.. whatever, and we followed them to the nest. Do you know what a Seadragunus Giganticus Maximus is?"

Valka nodded, "they're a Stroker class. Alpha species aren't they?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yes. And they're… well… Giganticus Maximus. Well, there was one in that nest. We called it the Red Death. Well we flew back to Berk as fast as possible after it tried to eat us. It was obviously not a very nice Alpha. It forced the other dragons to bring food for it- which was good news for us- we didn't have to deal with it then- but bad news for the other dragons. We got back to Berk, and I convinced Astrid not to tell. The next day was the kill ring though, and I decided I had to show Berk how the dragons weren't what we thought they were. I went out, and boy it was hard, to let my Dad down like that, but I dropped my weapons, and started to train the Monstrous Nightmare. But Dad got mad just before the Monstrous Nightmare was fully trained, and the dragon went berserk. Toothless must've heard me screaming and all the rucus, because he came running, and if it weren't for him… well I'd be dead… again." Hiccup laughed quietly before continuing. "Dad captured Toothless. Then he yelled at me for… being the weakling. He- well that's all behind us now, I won't go into it." Hiccup stopped again, and Toothless nudged him comfortingly. "Dad learned that I'd been to the nest, and I opened my big mouth and said that only a dragon could find the nest. He took Toothless, and went with an armada to the nest. Well, Astrid sort of… well… got me to believe in myself again, I guess. So she and the other "Vikings in training" went to the kill ring, where I trained the dragons. The others weren't to pumped up about it at first, but when they discovered how the dragons trusted them in return for their trust, they agreed to help us- me and Astrid I mean."

"We flew to the nest, and saw that the Red Death was already out and doing quite a bit of trouble. The others began to distract the Red Death, while I went to find Toothless. Finally, after a struggle and with a bit of Dad's help, we got him loose. I remembered that dragons weren't "fire proof" on the inside, so used that as an advantage. Toothless and I got it to follow us into the sky, where we then dived back down towards the nest. Toothless turned around and shot the Red Death in the mouth, and that began to destroy it. But Toothless's tailfin had received some damage during all this- and when the Red Death crashed to the ground- literally exploding in fire- it completely fell off. We were still trying to get up and out of the way, but, well, we didn't get out in time. The tail came up and whacked me and Toothless. I was knocked out, don't remember much after that."

Valka's heart raced as she listened. Hiccup had protected the villagers, villagers who had never cared for him. Hiccup defiately was a special person. And he had defeated the Red Death all on his own like that?

"I'm told that my leg broke when the tail hit us, but no one really knows for sure. The healers say that Toothless caught me by the leg, before rapping me in his wings, therefore well…" he didn't finish the thought. "Dad found us after the fire had cleared up a bit. If it hadn't been for Toothless catching me… I would've died. He saved me… err… most of me, huh buddy? Suppose I deserved to lose a leg since you lost your tailfin, hmm?"

Toothless cooed in disagreement. He smiled though and nudged his rider, turning his head for a chin scratching. Hiccup gave it, laughing as though the topic didn't bother him at all. Valka was proud of him for that, he was so strong, if not physically, then mentally. It was obvious that he'd adjusted to life without a limb, and that just proved how strong he was. How could anyone think otherwise?

"I woke up back at our house. I didn't even realize I'd lost my leg at first. It wasn't until I went to stand up…" Hiccup let his voice trail off and he looked down at his metal leg. "Yeah, well. I knew I'd have to get used to it, so I got up and tried to walk to Toothless. He helped me walk to the door, where I discovered Berk had totally _transformed_. Dragon's everywhere and I mean- even Snotlout was riding them. But yeah, so everything went up hill from there. With bumps along the way to be sure but hey, we're alive and well today, right, Toothless?" Toothless opened and closed his mouth a couple times making guttural noises as though to say _"Many, many, many bumps along the way."_

Hiccup laughed and hugged Toothless around the neck, rubbing him playfully on the head with his fist. Hiccup caught Valka's eye, and she smiled softly at him.

"And everyone… respects… and likes you now? After you saved them?" Valka asked, mixed emotions in her voice.

Hiccup shrugged, "Yeah, I suppose. Everyone likes me better now I suppose. It seems, they look over… all this," he gestured to himself, "And can tell that I try to be a good Viking, even if I don't look the part, I'm still here."

Valka had mixed emotions right now. It hurt her to see that it took Hiccup losing a part of him- his leg- to gain the trust, love, and respect from the village that he deserved. He didn't seem to hold a grudge either. He seemed totally at ease with what had happened to him- how un fair his life had been. But that only proved to her all the more, what a truly special person her son was.

 **And…. DONE! There you go! Another story! I hope you guys liked this one-shot… I really wish they had showed her reaction to his past… you know… how would she have reacted? I sort of got this idea and decided to write it down for you all.**

 **Hoped you enjoyed it! :D I really need some suggestions… so please, if you have any ideas for stories, share them! I have a hard time coming up with stories. I can't guarantee that they'll get written… but you never know!**

 **See you everyone! Until the next one!**

 **-FanWriter02**


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